The demographic context of urban schools and districts

As the country undergoes tremendous racial transition, this article explores the impact of these trends on the composition of urban schools and districts. The demographic context of urban schools is important to consider because of the body of research that concludes that the composition of students in schools is related to students' academic and non-academic outcomes. In schools consisting of students largely from one race, a diverse teaching staff is one of the few remaining ways to provide students with daily interactions and experiences across racial lines. Although there has been a growth of segregated minority schools that has left many urban schools with few white and middle-class students, there also is variety among urban schools, by size of city and region of the country. Urban schools have more diverse faculties than other schools although racial composition and teacher experience and stability varies by students' racial composition.